Pictures to take

As I find myself in Texas currently I've started thinking about which pictures I may be able to take to replace the ones that are not mine, or that I would just like slightly better copies of...

Bats (i don't think it's the correct time of year for this)
Elisabet Ney (or rather a picture of her portrait...would the Elisabet Ney museum have this?)
Amy's Ice Cream
Roller Derby
Treaty Oak
UT Tower, lit up orange (this will only work if they win their bowl game)
Stevie Ray Vaughn statue by the river
Bluebonnets (winter is definitely not the time of year for this)
SXSW (not festival time right now either)
Zilker Christmas Tree

And a few that I wouldn't mind getting better pictures of:
Dairy Queen
James Avery
Kirby Lane

Rhythm

So how do you keep track of they rhythm of words? Or how can I write it down in such a way that I compare the two lines of my rhymes? Does it matter if other people read at a different rhythm? Can I do more than just make it flow for my manner of speaking?

As you can tell the idea of getting the rhythm of each rhyme to math is only raising more questions. Until I can get a good idea of how to even chart down the rhythm I speak in I'm not sure I can really work on this (the math teacher in me needs a type of concise, exact manner of comparing). Would dots work?

Z is for the Zilker tree * * * * ** *
Spin around 'til you can't see * ** * * * *

Does this even matter? I kind of like this rhyme, but I'm not sure I could ever get every pair to have the same rhythm. Should I drive myself crazy trying?

Words

So I've been at work on the words again. The trouble with rhyming, is that sometimes it means you have to phrase things in sort of an odd way. I'm trying to avoid that if possible. I think I've fixed two of the couplets that just needed work on the number of syllables. I tried to fix two others, but am not at all sure that they flow well now. I have also completely rewrote the last couplet (for Z) which would necessitate a picture taken in Austin during December...but I guess that's an entirely different problem. Let me know if you like the new last rhyme:

Z is for the Zilker tree
Spin around 'til you can't see.

Tasks

So I already know of several things that I'm going to need to do before I even get to the publishing phase of this process.

1. pictures Figure out which of the pictures I used are my own, and which aren't. Work on replacing those that I can't use in a book. I see several options for this:

• wait until I'm back in Austin and take replacement pictures. I see problems with this for a couple of them as they would require certain times of the year (bluebonnets, Zilker tree) or specific events (roller derby, SXSW)
• convince friends/families to take these pictures for me and allow me to use them. This is tricky too...I'd have to be happy with them, and I'm not sure my relationships need that stress. And how do I explain exactly what I want when I'm not entirely sure?
  
• Could I use photos from flickr that are under a creative commons license? I need to do a bit more research into that. If they are only under an attribution license does that mean I can use them in a commercial endeavor as long as I give credit?
• Register/buy them off of i-stock photo. Fairly cheap, definitely allowed to use these for commercial use. The question is will they have everything that I want pictures of?

2. words The book is pretty much a two line rhyme for each letter of the alphabet. Some of these I'm not entirely happy with. Some of them I just don't think sound right, or don't have the same rhyme scheme. I guess the first step is to look at syllable counts. Is that all that matters, or does the rhythm that you speak in matter as well?

3. cover This is the thing I have the hardest time with in all the books I've done. Scrapbooks, alphabet books...it doesn't matter. I'm never happy with how the cover comes out. And if I'm going to try to sell this, then the cover really matters. It's what will make people pick up the book if they look at it. Do I try to do this myself? Put up multiple options for other people to vote on? Hire someone to advise me? Hire someone to create it? Can I afford to hire someone?

steps

My sister sent this my way. Another blog post about creating your own book. It just outlines the basic steps to self-publishing, and definitely give a few things to think about.

Self-publishing

I've found one possibility for self-publishing (not that I'm anywhere close to this point) - blurb. One of the things I like about this option is that they do a 7 x 7 inch square book. My original version of the book was square and I'd like to keep it that way. I haven't really looked into any other options yet, and I'm sure there are plenty.

Just the beginning

I seem to have somehow fallen into a recurring project that involves me creating things for my niece J. Combining my hobby of photography with my entire family's love of books and this has developed into a series of alphabet books about places we (or I) have lived. When I began I never anticipated anyone beyond my immediate family even seeing these books, but somehow it's grown a bit. My sister loved the one about Austin, Texas so much that she has given her copy away, printed another copy and is asking me to redo one more so that J still has her own copy. The good remarks its been earning from other people has gotten me thinking...and I'm thinking I might try to see if I can get it published (or self-publish as I feel like it would be a niche market). The idea is really still just floating around in my head but I'm hoping the process of blogging will help me keep things straight and keep me moving along the necessary path. There are still a lot of steps to consider in this process.